Instruction
A shockingly simple drill to hit the golf ball farther
One of the biggest requests I get on the lesson tee is for more distance. Everyone wants to hit the golf ball farther. Obviously. That being said, there’s many things that go into producing distance, such as…
- Swing Length — how long is the swing or how long does the club stay in the air before hitting the ball?
- Swing Width — are you at full extension at during the swing or do you get soft arms?
- Impact Point — the horizontal and vertical point of contact that influences gear effect, launch, and spin rate.
- Spin Rate — how much backspin does the ball have?
- Height — how high is the ball in the air?
- Launch Angle — what is the angle of the ball off the face during impact?
- Ball Speed — how fast does the ball leave the blade?
But one thing remains true: if you want more distance, then you must swing faster with all of the above being maximized for your current swing speed. So how do you create more speed? Simple — set up the drill as shown below.
Use between 6-to-10 balls and swing 100 percent all out with no regard for where the ball lands. Then repeat the drill and make your normal speed swing and you will find that your clubhead speed will slightly increase. Do this drill 5 to 10 times per practice session and you will train yourself to swing faster.
However, it’s up to you to figure out how fast you can swing yet maximize the qualities listed above so you can maintain consistent contact.
Remember, you don’t have to get complex to solve your distance problem. Try this first and see what happens!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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ogo
Apr 2, 2018 at 10:20 pm
You can’t just magically acquire a higher swing speed doing this 10 ball drill once or twice. You must do it three times daily and ten 10-ball sets …. for THREE MONTHS … 😮
ChipNRun
Apr 2, 2018 at 2:02 pm
Tom,
This reminds me of an excellent “tempo setter” which some players use after warm-up and right before tee-off:
* Tee up five balls in parallel, about 6 inches apart. Set up with your driver, and crisply set up and hit five shots in a row. By the fourth or fifth shot, you can “feel your drive tempo” for the day.
RITZ
Mar 10, 2018 at 11:42 pm
SuperSpeed sticks with their golf protocols will get your MPG up there.
Raymond CHASTEL
Feb 26, 2018 at 3:27 pm
What did great golf champion -two time US champion -JULIUS BOROS- say “SWING EASY ,HIT HARD “:Tom Stickney is right :go for it
S
Feb 24, 2018 at 10:11 am
No! I want to be able to hit it really far without any drills or practice, after I’ve sat on the office and couch chairs for a whole week, as I rush to the first tee early on a Sunday morning.
lol
Ogo
Feb 24, 2018 at 2:18 pm
PXG hits far……….. really far
George
Mar 10, 2018 at 10:25 am
PXG = SNAKE OIL
Dave
Mar 14, 2018 at 1:37 pm
aND THEY HIT EVEN HARDER IN THE BANK ACCOUNT THAT IS !!!
Rich Douglas
Feb 24, 2018 at 8:30 am
Hit it hard. Always hit it hard. Don’t hold back; decelerating the club is bad juju.
Swing it like a whip, not a hammer. But swing hard. Besides, you might even hit it.
LuckyAussie
Feb 24, 2018 at 1:22 am
Shank.
Cool Canuck
Feb 24, 2018 at 1:41 am
Stinkney too ….. 😛
Ogo
Feb 23, 2018 at 8:49 pm
Okay, but don’t start with the driver; start with the 5-wood and then go to the 3-wood before you try the driver. Starting with the driver is wrong wrong wrong.
Daniel
Feb 28, 2018 at 5:15 am
Why
Barry
Feb 23, 2018 at 2:25 pm
This seems like one of those tips that is ridiculed (I always love seeing the ‘shank numbers”) for being too simple. I recall Harvey Penick – one of the great instructors the game has ever known – dealing with pupils who couldn’t deal with the simplicity of what he was trying to teach them.
But I will be solidly in Mr. Stickney’s corner on this one. My pro used this drill with me and it truly works.
Here’s the problem. I start playing golf in college, about 20 years ago. Through the school of hard knocks, I learn that controlling the club face is key, and the game is more fun in the short grass. My handicap drops, but my swing becomes more and more cautious and controlled every year, always more and more fearful of a big miss. I’m scoring and competing well, but rounds are a chore, grinding things out because I’m short off the tee due to my cautious swing.
In part due to this drill, I learn that I can swing out more and still be reasonably accurate. I can go after tee shots and swing out. Golf is more FUN. No change in mechanics, no new equipment, just give yourself permission to TAKE THE BRAKES OFF and I’m much longer and really no less accurate. When you get wild, you can always dial it back. But you have to come to terms with the fact that putting it out there is going to introduce some risk. In some ways it’s like learning to drive a car – on a side road, 35 feels fast, but when you come off the highway doing 75 it feels glacial. It’s all relative.
This is one of those things that has reinforced what an incredibly mental game this is.
Speedy
Feb 26, 2018 at 7:31 pm
“Every Golfer from young adult through Seasoned Citizens, should own a heavy practice club that weighs at lease 22 ounces. Swinging a weighted club with your regular grip and stance is the best exercise I know to build the golf muscles”. – Harvey Penick
Speedy
Feb 23, 2018 at 1:59 pm
Exercise, nutrition, practice swing a weighted club. That’ll be $200, please.
Ogo
Feb 23, 2018 at 8:52 pm
A weighted club is stupid because you only deaden your arms and hands… and you use different muscles than with a driver or any other club. A weighted club will kill your golf swing… believe it
Speedy
Feb 24, 2018 at 3:35 pm
Strict supervision required for some.
ogo
Feb 24, 2018 at 6:34 pm
you mean like Stinkney?
acew/7iron
Feb 25, 2018 at 9:18 am
I agree…I think trainers like the orange whip are better for speed.
Scott
Mar 8, 2018 at 12:14 pm
acew,
Today, then what to they want to sell you tomorrow?
Scott
Mar 8, 2018 at 12:13 pm
maybe for some, but not true, ogo. Did not kill mine.